Sister's Keeper

Sanmesh Kalyanpur, 13, was escorting his seven-year-old sister Sanjana home after school through the flooded streets of central Mumbai one wet July afternoon last year, when she suddenly started disappearing into the filthy water. Luckily the two had been holding hands, and Sanmesh instantly tightened his grip, preventing her from sinking further.

Sanmesh realized that Sanjana had stepped right into an open manhole. "I’ve got to pull her out", he thought, his heart beating wildly. "Otherwise she’ll be sucked into the hole and drown."

His right hand still gripping Sanjana, Sanmesh reached for his sister with his left and began pulling her. But suddenly, he slipped and fell, his left leg entering the manhole and his right leg buckling under him. To his horror, Sanjana had disappeared in the water.

Fortunately, Sanmesh, a star batsman in his school’s cricket team, hadn’t lost his grip on his sister’s hand. "I can't fall into the hole too", Sanmesh thought, as he desperately groped in the water with his left hand for something to hold onto. Fortunately it closed around the manhole cover.

Carefully, Sanmesh manoeuvred himself into a sitting position on the road with his legs in the manhole, without losing his grip on Sanjana. His arms were aching now, for adding to Sanjana’s 25 kilos was her schoolbag strapped to her back. But with one quick jerk, Sanmesh managed to yank Sanjana out of the water, and, coughing and spluttering, she fell on him, her head on his chest.

As Sanjana, clung to her brother, like a baby monkey holding its mother, Sanmesh bent backwards until he was almost lying on the road. “You can let go of me,” Sanmesh told his sister, “you’re safe now.”

Sanjana pulled her feet out of the manhole and stood up. Then, as Sanmesh, extricated himself, and stood by her, Sanjana began crying with relief. Holding each other’s hands tightly, the two walked home. Luckily, both children had only superficial injuries. And although Sanjana had swallowed a lot of dirty water, she wasn’t any worse for it. But for several nights, Sanmesh couldn’t sleep properly. “Sanjana and I fight a lot,” he says. “She’s a really mischievous kid. But I can’t bear the thought of losing her.”

-Surekha Kadapa-Bose
---From READER’S DIGEST-July 2005.

Hunger

The photo is the “Pulitzer Prize” winning photo taken in 1994 during the Sudan Famine.The picture depicts stricken child crawling towards an United Nations food camp, located a kilometer away.

The vulture is waiting for the child to die so that it can eat him. This picture shocked the whole world. No one knows what happened to the child, including the photographer Kevin Carter who left the place as soon as the photograph was taken.

Three months later he committed suicide due to depression.

http://www.worldsfamousphotos.com/stricken-child-crawling-towards-a-food-camp-1993.html

I received this photograph in a forwarded email sometime back. I wanted to show it to somebody, but couldn’t find it in my hard-drive or in my inbox, so I googled it out. There are quite a few copies of it on the internet, this is the link to one of them.

Everybody of is debating on the page about what is wrong with the system, what needs to be done, what are the duties of the world bodies, rich people who don’t do enough charity and who knows what not. But I want to ask these people, “Did any of you ensure that YOU don’t waste any food?” If you do it & further ensure that everyone you know also doesn't waste any food, in the long run the Aggregate Demand is going to come down drastically. If everybody who eats decides to purchase only that much that he sincerely wants to eat and doesn’t waste any food, this is going to save the life of a significant number of people every year who die of hunger; one way or the other.

“Lofty ideals” you’ll say. I know that charity begins at home, so I’ve made every effort to ensure that I don’t waste any food and also try and ensure that everybody I know doesn’t disrespect or waste food in any way whatsoever.

I’m not asking you to give me blood, time, devotion or absolutely anything at all. All I’m asking is for you to promise me that you’ll not waste any food, ask for only that much that you’re going to eat and make sure that everybody in you share a table with, does the same. This is the least you can do to (literally) save the world.

I may not be alive to see the day when nobody dies of petty reasons. Nevertheless, I would still want that day to arrive. Hope that it arrives soon & further hope that you have a positive part to play in it.

Hasmukh :)